Q&A with new Astros bench coach Joe Pettini

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The Astros didn’t just go on a midnight raid of the St. Louis Cardinals front office this winter. No, they hired a member of the 2011 World Series champions to be at Brad Mills’ side in the dugout.

New bench coach Joe Pettini, who won two World Series at Tony La Russa’s side, talks about what he gleaned from the future Hall-of-Famer, his outlook on the Astros and whether — now a heartbeat away from the office — he’d like to manage.

Q: What did you learn from Tony La Russa in your time with St. Louis?

A: I was very fortunate, first of all. When I finished my playing career with the Cardinals organization, when I changed sides and went to the coaching part of the game, I did it in an organization that was really sound on fundamentals and had the teachers who had been around for a long time. The George Kissells and Hub Kittles and Dave Ricketts, guys that have been in the organization a long time.

So when I started coaching, it benefited me to be in that organization and learn. They’ve had a lot of success in the minor leagues as well as the big leagues and I think one of the reasons for that is the consistency that they’ve had.

I give a lot of credit to what I’ve learned from the people that were there even before Tony got there. When Tony was there, I got to spend 10 years with him and really understood the big league side of managing. Not only what goes on on the field, but more importantly what takes place off the field.

Q: What do you hope he learned from you?

A: Tony’s a Hall-of-Fame manager who’s been at it a long time. I’m not sure there’s anything he learned from me, but I learned a great deal from him especially the way he treated players. In St. Louis, we had a lot of high-profile players that I think he did a great job with — the Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolens. In the times with those two guys there were some differences, but Tony really showed professionalism and how to treat those players and handle them and get the best out of them.

Q: You mentioned high-profile players. This is a team without a lot of high-profile players. Is your job different on a team with more young players than a team that was full of veterans?

A: You have a lot of young talented players here that hopefully some day turn into those high-profile players. I think you have quite a few of them here that have that chance. The one thing that you do have when you have a young club is that we had some good teams in St. Louis but with those type of players, the thing that we didn’t have was the speed. You’re going to manage the games and form the way you play the game with the talent that you have, and one of the things that this club has is speed and being able to use that speed. We don’t have a lot of guys that put up a lot of big numbers offensively, but you go with what you have.

Q: Will you act as a sounding board for Brad Mills? Will you come to him with things? How does that give-and-take work?

A: I think on any staff, the manager has enough problems and the coaching staff, I think it’s their responsibility to take care of the things that they need to take care of to lessen the load on the manager. He has enough to deal with. He’s the one who has to deal with the press and the umpires and everything else. As a coach on any staff, you’re going to try to take care of things you can take care of.

Q: Playing in the division last year, you saw the Astros 15 times. What were your impressions from afar of this club?

A: They made a lot of moves. A lot of small-market clubs have to do things a certain way to try to rebuild, and that’s what the Astros have done the last couple of years. They traded some people and got some nice younger players. You just saw a young club that was learning to play. You saw a lot of talent with some of these players. Hopefully in the years ahead, they can move forward with the guys that fit the bill here then hopefully you add some people in the next few years and start competing again.

Q: Do you hope to manage some day?

A: I’m happy with what I’m doing. Ten years with Tony, I realized the headaches that come along with managing. Not that I don’t like managing, but I’ve had to do it on numerous occasions with Tony, filling in. The one thing that I’ve learned in the minor leagues is that I really love managing the game as far as what happens between the lines. I’m pretty good at it. Hopefully, I can be a help to Brad with that. He’s made it clear to me that he wants someone on the bench with him that’s going to discuss the game as it goes along, which I’m very excited about.

As far as managing some day, hey, I’m happy with where I’m going right now. I’ll continue to do it as long as I can and just love being a part of the game at this level.

Q: How did the job come about? When were you contacted, or did you reach out to the Astros?

A: After the Series and Tony retiring and then St. Louis doing the managerial search and letting the manager pick a staff… (transitions to new thought) First of all, I was very fortunate to be in St. Louis. I can’t complain — I was there 10 years, went to the playoffs six times and went to three World Series.

When they made the changes, they had asked me if I wanted to stay within the organization and do something else. I thought if that something else was worth doing and feasible enough I would do it, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

I was actually, being that late in the year, thinking I might have to take a year off before I start contacting people and looking for another job. But Tony called me on Christmas Eve and told me he had spoken to Jeff. Jeff inquired about me, and Tony called me back and said he was going to be contacting me after the new year.

When Jeff called, he invited me down and did the interview process with everybody, and everybody made me feel very welcome, very important. And I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here. That St. Louis part of my career is over. I was glad I had it. I was very fortunate to have it. This is a new chapter and I am looking forward to it very much, and I’m very excited about it and hopefully I can help get the Astros back to the early 2000s when we had such great competition with St. Louis.